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1. INTRODUCTION This book describes a new interdisciplinary theory for explaining cultural change. In contrast to traditional evolutionist theories, the present theory stresses the fact that a culture can evolve in different directions depending on its life conditions. Cultural selection theory explains why certain cultures or cultural ele ments spread, possibly at the expense of other cultures or cultural elements which then disappear. Cultural elements include social structure, traditions, religion, rituals, art, norms, morals, ideologies, ideas, inventions, knowledge, technology, etc. This theory is inspired by Charles Darwin's idea of natural selection, because cultural elements are seen as analogous to genes in the sense that they may be reproduced from generation to generation and they may undergo change. A culture may evolve because certain cultural elements are more likely to spread and be reproduced than others, analogously to a species evolving because individuals possessing certain traits are more fit than others to reproduce and transmit these traits to their offspring.
Since 1999 European higher education has been engaged in the most radical reform of its 900 years of history. This volume brings together a group of higher education researchers across Europe and looks into the implementation of the Bologna Process in the countries often attributed a peripheral status. In addition to cultural and political issues, the volume pays particular attention to the role of students as well as the changing position of the intellectuals under its impact.
Positive Ageing and Learning from Centenarians evaluates the mechanisms of positive ageing in a uniquely interdisciplinary way to explore the question of how we age and how some people age successfully. Drawing together the findings of recognised longevity researchers from around the world, the book applies an integrated vision to educational and social aspects of human ageing. It examines research into centenarians, and considers most of the disciplines related to longevity and healthy aging and aspects such as education, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, demography, sociology, economics as well as those related to nutrition and biological factors of longevity. The book examines how the...
Every leader has heard of the business benefits of social technology, yet many still struggle to understand how to get the most out of the technological tools at their disposal -- asking questions like "What should I be doing on Facebook?" and "How can Twitter help my company?" This book demystifies this much-hyped subject, and gives readers a level-headed, growth-focused approach to how they can put all kinds of social technology -- not just the big, well-known platforms -- to work for their companies. The book is a step-by-step plan for developing and implementing social technology and covers every aspect of social technology in the business arena -- from planning and goal-setting, to assembling a social tech team, to integrating social tech with your existing online presence, to measuring the return on investment. Business visionaries will be impressed by the scope and practicality of the strategies presented, and older executives prone to thinking of social tech as a toy will come to understand its critical place in today's business landscape.
First Published in 1986. This book marks a watershed in cognitive science activity at Yale University. Over the past decade, the cognitive science orientation has become more and more integrated into the mainstream of cognitive psychology, and artificial intelligence workers now feel comfortable thinking about psychological experimentation. This book collects in one place the research work which concentrates on covering topics in the representation, processing, and recall of meaningful verbal .materials. Several of the chapters are first reports of research; others are specially prepared reviews and elaborations of research reported previously. Here it is all together: Studies of scripts, plans, and higher-level knowledge structures; analyses of knowledge structure activation, of autobiographical memory, of the phenomenon of reminding, of the summarization of text, of explanations for events, and more.
Nostalgia is intimately connected to the history of the social sciences in general and anthropology in particular, though finely grained ethnographies of nostalgia and loss are still scarce. Today, anthropologists have realized that nostalgia constitutes a fascinating object of study for exploring contemporary issues of the formation of identity in politics and history. Contributors to this volume consider the fabric of nostalgia in the fields of heritage and tourism, exile and diasporas, postcolonialism and postsocialism, business and economic exchange, social, ecological and religious movements, and nation building. They contribute to a better understanding of how individuals and groups commemorate their pasts, and how nostalgia plays a role in the process of remembering.
Readership: Students and scholars of ritual studies, religious studies, anthropology
Explores theories on the evolution of technology, the effects that human choice has on this revolution, and what's in store in the future.
To understand contemporary times, we must appreciate the extent to which our lives are affected by the cultural and political struggle between "official" narratives and the counternarratives which emerge as oppositional responses. Counternarratives develops a concept of "postmodern counternarratives" as a frame for exploring the politics of media, technology and education within everyday struggles for human identities and loyalties. The authors identify two forms of counternarratives. One functions as a critique of the modernist propensity for grand narratives. The second concept, which is the focus of the book, builds on the first; the idea of "little stories" addressing cultural and political opposition to the "official" narratives used to manipulate public consciousness. Each marks an important point of contestation within contemporary education and culture: curriculum, pedagogy, literacy, media representations and applications of new technologies.